PREACHING MEANS CREATING A TASTE

PREACHING MEANS CREATING A TASTE
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
This śraddhā has to be increased. Then when you come to the point of ruci, vāsudeva-kathāruci, that is the beginning of our perfection. At the present moment, there is no ruci, no taste. There are so many exalted persons, but they have no taste. They have lost all taste. The preachers could not preach properly to create taste in the people in general. It is not the fault of the people; it is the fault of the so-called preachers. Because they could not create taste, they wanted to take the place of Krishna. That was their purpose. Imitation of Krishna. Imitation of God. That will not do. You have to create taste. Just like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did. Therefore when Srila Rupa Goswami first met Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he offered this prayer: namo mahā-vadānyāya k a-premapradāya te, “You are the most munificent incarnation because you are giving Krishna (Cc. madhya 19.53). You are greater than Krishna, “mahā-vadānyāya”. Krishna asked everybody to surrender, but He did not give himself immediately. However, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He is also Krishna in the form of a devotee. He is giving Himself, “Take me!” without any price.

So vāsudeva-kathā-ruci (Bhāg. 1.2.16). People should be educated how to increase their taste for understanding Krishna. This is the Krishna consciousness movement. Everyone should come forward and assist this movement. One should behave in a Krishna conscious way and then he will be able to make others Krishna conscious — not by theoretical knowledge, but by behavior, āpani ācari’ bhakti karila pracāra (Cc. ādi 4.41).
— Lecture in Vrindavan, 27 October 1972.

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